


folklore

by BelleMorte180



Category: The Originals (TV), The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:41:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25556032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BelleMorte180/pseuds/BelleMorte180
Summary: Caroline Forbes coming-of-age. A life made up love, regret, mistakes and eternity.based off the album folklore by Taylor Swift.
Relationships: Caroline Forbes/Klaus Mikaelson
Comments: 35
Kudos: 143





	folklore

**Author's Note:**

> This album got under my skin. I listened to it a hundred times already and a story of Caroline's coming-of-age formed. It would let me alone. 
> 
> and this was born.
> 
> I wrote this in four hours.
> 
> It just.....wouldn't leave me be.

**seven**

_And though I can’t recall your face, I still got love for you. Your braids like a pattern, love you to the moon and to Saturn. Passed down like folk songs. The love lasts so long._

Caroline glanced down at the grave with her mother’s name written on it. Her mother was dead, Silas had taken her too soon. Bonnie was gone as well; giving a sacrifice that Caroline could just not understand. She understood love or at least she thought she did. Bonnie loved Jeremy and gave her life for that love. Caroline wondered if she would have done the same for Tyler.

Surely, Elena would have for Stefan?

Perhaps not.

She loved Damon now. Her love was fleeting; disregarding an epic love that Caroline once found herself jealous of. Stefan was gone, fleeing with his broken heart. Caroline could not blame him. She would have done the same, or at least she thinks she would have.

Caroline stood in that graveyard, orphaned and utterly alone. High school behind her and the future in her grasps. The five-year plan, written down on paper and clutched in her hand.

Did she want it?

A month ago, she would have said yes.

Now, she wasn’t so sure.

**mirrorball**

_I want you to know, I’m a mirrorball. I can change everything about me to fit in. You are not like the regulars. The masquerade revelers, drunk as they watch my shattered edges glisten._

It started in a dingy bar just outside of Mystic Falls in the middle of May when she saw him again. He had vanished for a time, visiting an old friend in New Orleans, or at least that was what she was told. He came to her graduation, saved the day and they had a moment behind the bleachers.

Klaus.

He gave her that devesting smile that set her heart aflutter. He offered her a drink, she should have said no. Klaus made her laugh, pushing all the wrong buttons just right. He made her feel strong, but he was the wrong choice.

Klaus killed Jenna, Carol Lockwood, twelve hybrids…..Elena.

He had a thousand years of blood behind him.

He wasn’t a part of that five-year plan.

He wasn’t Tyler.

Klaus held out his hand and asked her to dance. Caroline glanced down at it; biting her lip in a debate on what she should do; and what she wanted. She slipped her hand into his and they danced.

**august**

_but I can see us lost in a memory. August slipped away into a moment in time, ‘cause it was never mine. And I can see us twisted in bedsheets. August sipped away like a bottle of wine, ‘cause you were never mine._

Caroline had the summer of her life. Elena was distracted. Matt was gone with Rebekah. Tyler still gone somewhere in the wild. Klaus held out his hand and she took it greedily. Day trips to the beach and nights spent in his sheets. Late night conversations and sips of wine until she felt warm.

It was selfish but she was happy.

She felt alive.

Then August came. Reality set in. Elena talked non-stop of college; with only moments of sadness that Bonnie wouldn’t be with them.

Tyler came home. He wanted her again. Caroline’s heart broke and cheered at the same time. Elena and Caroline shared a dorm together. Laughing as they decorated it while clicking glasses full of blood. Then Damon popped his head in; the happiness Caroline felt turned bitter.

Worse when Elena happily skipped off with him. Happy.

Caroline called Tyler. Straight to voicemail. He left again. Always leaving her behind.

She called Matt. He had to work; needed to get back to making money after running all over Europe; even if Rebekah was more than willing to support him. Matt was not a man who was going to be kept by his rich girlfriend.

Caroline called Klaus.

He answered.

**hoax**

_Stood on the cliffside screaming “Give me a reason”. Your faithless love is the only hoax I believe in. Don’t want no other shade of blue but you. No other sadness in the world would do._

Caroline never thought she would see Klaus beg. Never once did he ask her to give up her dreams; but just to include him in them. He wanted to hold her hand; but she had Tyler. The right choice. The boy she vowed to love forever.

The boy who left her over and over again.

Tyler held his arm around her as they walked through campus. She laughed with him, but the smile died when he mentioned he was leaving once again. She begged him to stay. He wouldn’t. He said that he was finding a way to take down Klaus. It was fruitless. She told him so. He didn’t care. She begged him to choose her.

He didn’t.

Elena still hated him. Caroline listened to her scowl how he was still in town. How she would see him, and it terrified her; wondering why he hadn’t moved on. Bitter words were on Caroline’s tongue. He hadn’t moved on because of her. And it terrified her to see Damon almost every day; but she said nothing. She held her silence.

She wanted Klaus to give her a reason to choose him.

He gave her a thousand.

When she showed up on his doorstep mere hours after Tyler left, she found herself back in his bed again.

**illicit affairs**

_and that’s the thing about illicit affairs, and clandestine meetings and longing stares. Its born from just one single glance; but it dies and it dies and it dies, a million little times._

They hid their relationship for months. They hid it from Matt and Rebekah who were joined at the hip; Rebekah claiming to have finally found the one. Matt who was contemplating becoming immortal for her. Caroline doubted it happening.

They hid it from Damon and Elena who were so wrapped up in each other, they did not see the outside world. Elena never once asked where Caroline would go for hours on end. Who she was with; what she was doing?

They hid it from Tyler who was absent, with only a few calls here and there. Never once did he ask how she was doing. Never once did he ponder how she was handling college without him. Never once did he think that she let Klaus between her thighs almost every night; in his car and in back alleyways.

She basked in the sweet nothings he would whisper in her ear.

She basked in the late-night meetings behind the Grill; pinned up against a brick wall, muffling out her cries as she came around him.

Every time, she gave herself to him; but never her heart.

She left things at his place, lingerie she bought with him in mind. Perfume that she wore when they were together. Her home that her mother had left to her became their safe haven. It was a place they could be together and hidden away from the rest of Mystic Falls and their judgements.

That was until Tyler, who came home in hopes to surprise her, found her there, naked and straddling an equally naked Klaus in her childhood bedroom.

**mad woman**

_Every time you call me crazy, I get more crazy. What about that? And when you say I seem angry, I get more angry. And there’s nothing like a mad woman. What a shame she went mad. No one likes a mad woman. You made her like that._

Tyler told everyone what he saw, with anger and betrayal echoed in each word. She could not blame him. He came home for her, no matter how temporary. She threw that in his face. She begged him to stay. He pushed her towards Klaus. She asked him to choose her and he never did.

She blamed him and it wasn’t fair.

Elena was betrayed. She cried and screamed; her fingers weaved through her chocolate brown hair as Damon held her close. The sight made Caroline see red. She pointed fingers again; retelling every time Damon raped her with vivid detail. She aimed to hurt; share the pain she felt each time she watched her best friend fall in love with the man who abused her. She slammed the door behind her as she stormed out of the dorm room.

She went to Klaus.

Rebekah answered the door with a soft smile. No judgment; something that surprised Caroline. She stepped aside, letting herself into the manor. She found him in his studio; painting her. His smile was wide and happy; it broke Caroline’s heart. He thought she was picking him.

She wanted to; but his assumptions made her mad. She saw red for a third time that day.

They fought. Caroline unable to make up her mind; tired of everyone, including him telling her what she should want. Tired of Tyler making her be second choice, again. Tired of Elena’s habit of playing the victim; refusing to see her own hypocrisy.

Klaus just wanted her.

That was something Caroline was not willing to give yet.

The painting of her ended of smashed on the floor of his art studio.

**epiphany**

_Only twenty minutes to sleep, but you dream of some epiphany. Just one single glimpse of relief to make some sense of what you’ve seen._

Matt finds her at her mother’s grave. He said it wasn’t that hard to track her down. They were silent at first; that was until he started speaking. He told her how much he loved Rebekah. He knew that she had done horrible things in her life. He accepted that. He could understand why she picked Klaus; because it was the same reason he picked Rebekah.

But he was still disappointed.

She should have ended it with Tyler first.

And he was right.

Caroline cheated on him. He was gone but there was that spoken understanding that they were still together. Then she slept with the man who murdered his mother. Caroline knew he had every right to be angry. She cried and Matt didn’t hold her; but he didn’t hate her either. She was going to have to face the consequences.

The question became what she wanted.

Klaus wanted her to be his; and to be hers. He wanted an eternity together with linked hands and soft nights. He wanted to show her the world; to hand her genuine beauty. Matt agreed that Caroline deserved the world, but was she ready for that? Or maybe she needed to see it for herself first?

Matt asked her again. What did she want? No one really asked her that before. They all just assumed.

It was like an epiphany. Caroline knew that she wanted out. She wanted to breath on her own without the judgments of her friends holding her back. She wanted to leave Mystic Falls, Whitmore and that five-year plan she had devised for herself. She wanted Klaus…..  
But just not yet.

Caroline dropped out of college and sold her house. She packed her bags and drove to the Lockwood Manor first; for the last time.

**my tears ricochet**

_I didn’t have it in myself to go with grace and you’re the hero flying around saving face. And if I’m dead to you, why are you at the wake? Cursing my name, wishing I stayed? Look at how my tears ricochet_.

It went as she would have expected. Horrible. Tyler did not want to see her. She did not blame him. The petty part of Caroline could not help but throw every broken promise he made in his face. Tyler just called her Klaus’s whore.

He vowed that he never wanted to see her again. She expected that.

She offered him no apology because she knew she couldn’t offer him one. It would fall upon deaf ears anyway. He wanted nothing from her; tossing her things in her face and screamed at her to leave. His heartbroken face would stay with Caroline forever. She knew that when she closed her eyes at night, she would see that broken look.

It did not help the guilt.

If anything, it made it worse.

Tyler stood on the porch and she loaded up her car. There was not much but enough for it to make an impact. She realized that she had no real connections to those items. Little to no memories lingered with them anymore. She realized then that while she had loved Tyler, it wasn’t the epic love she dreamed of.

She gazed into his brown eyes one last time; giving him a small smile that he did not want to see. She held her car keys in hand and told him that she did love him and that she knew he loved her too; or else this wouldn’t hurt so much.

Caroline only wished it was enough for both of them.

**betty**

_You heard the rumors from Inez, you can’t believe a word she says. Most times, but this time it was true. The worst thing that I ever did, was what I did to you._

This was the final time Caroline would gaze upon the Boarding House. Elena was waiting for her on the front lawn; Tyler must have called her. Caroline did not even have the energy to be angry at that. She gazed at Elena’s face and it wasn’t even angry.

If anything, it was tired.

It was soft, gentle and heartbreaking; this goodbye. Elena couldn’t get over Caroline’s betrayal. She told her that Klaus killed her, wreaked havoc on her life and ruined everything he touched.

Caroline stayed silent.

Elena then told her that she was sorry. She never considered how seeing her with Damon would affect her. Never once did she think on the abuse Caroline suffered at Damon’s hands. If anything, she had forgotten every horrible thing Damon had done since he came to Mystic Falls; but Elena still loved him.

It was the reason why she was standing there, understanding what Caroline was trying to do. She was trying to make amends; but that did not mean she was ready to forgive and forget. Caroline told her the same, if not limited version of Elena’s well-prepared speech. She had months of pent up frustration and hurt by Elena’s actions; and she wasn’t ready to forgive that.

Neither were ready to forgive each other.

But they knew that one day they might.

It was quiet and almost peaceful; this goodbye. She had thought it would be the worst, but it wasn’t. It should have bothered Caroline more, saying goodbye to her childhood friend; but watching Elena’s figure as she drove from the Boarding House was like burying the last strand of the human girl that still lingered inside Caroline.

It surprised her that she didn’t mourn her more.

**exile**

_I think I’ve seen this film before, and I didn’t like the ending. You’re not my homeland anymore, so what am I defending now? You were my town, now I’m in exile, seein’ you out. I think I’ve seen this film before._

Caroline never thought she would see the day that Klaus cried. Part of him expected her to come to him, and they would leave together. The packed-up manor confirmed that. It was a stab in the heart. He had dreams that involved her, but she was not ready.

His expectations only served her resolve. They were not ready. They wanted so much but it was not the right time. Seeing his broken face and anger that lingered behind his eyes tore at Caroline’s heart.

He begged.

She refused. There were signs written on the wall. It was too soon. Caroline was not sure who she was let alone, what she wanted. She needed to answer those questions before she chose him.

Caroline expected him to scream and throw something; much like Tyler had done. He didn’t. Klaus just looked at her with a heartbroken expression that made Caroline cry. He sunk down onto his knees, placed his hands on her hips; pressing his face into her stomach, his tears staining her shirt.

She apologized.

She did not apologize to Tyler or Elena; but she apologized to Klaus. She was the bad guy in this situation, and she knew that. Even after everything he had done, Klaus did not deserve to be toyed with in the way Caroline had. She apologized for giving him a taste, but never the commitment that he wanted.

When Caroline closed the door behind her, the wail Klaus had let out still echoed in her ears as she drove south down the highway, leaving Virginia behind.

**this is me trying**

_I’ve been having a hard time adjusting. I had the shiniest wheels, now they’re rusting. I didn’t know if you’d car if I came back. I have a lot of regrets about that._

Caroline drove. And drove. And drove. She made pit stops, saw the sights and drowned her sorrows in the bottle. She pulled out a journal Elena gave her years back that she never opened. She began to write.

Dear Klaus.

Letters that she would never send. Not until she was ready. Instead she would just think on that five-year plan that she would now happily burn. She told bartender after bartender some version of the story, leaving out the tale of vampires and werewolves. In the end, she was always the bad guy.

It worried her how she could live with that.

Dear Klaus.

It was in Saint Louise that she saw Stefan. Their paths crossed by happenstance. He looked good; something that surprised Caroline. He hugged her and it almost felt like having a friend again. A friend. Caroline realized she no longer had those.

She told him everything and he didn’t judge. If anything, he sympathized. He detailed his travels and what he had been up to. He made her laugh. He made her feel like herself again. He told her to keep moving. Keep searching because one day she would find the Caroline she was always meant to be.

And she would be beautiful.

Dear Klaus.

They parted ways, exchanging numbers as they did. They would talk. Stefan would call when he needed a sponsor, to keep him from falling off the rails and she would call when she needed to laugh or cry about something or another. Caroline had a friend.

It was strange.

It was freeing.

It almost felt like healing.

Dear Klaus.

**cardigan**

_And when I felt like I was an old cardigan, under someone’s bed. You put me on and said I was your favorite._

It was in a tiny apartment she had rented in New York City and three years later that Caroline had the courage to go through her stuff he had taken from Klaus’s. She gazed at the photos she had from that summer they spent together. She didn’t cry, at least, not out of sadness. She laughed and shook her head at the funnier moments. She spread everything out on the hardwood flooring and went through everything while drinking a bottle of red wine.

It felt like peace and closure.

She missed him. She always would. She missed how he smelled as he held her. She missed how he looked when he drew her close to him. She missed the late-night conversations, basking in the afterglow of their love making. She missed the little oasis they had made at her home before reality set in and the world fell to shit. She missed how Klaus made her feel worthwhile and loved.

Caroline realized that he had chosen her with her faults and all.  
Klaus wanted her the way she was and everything that everyone else found exhausting in her, Klaus reveled in. It was a strange epiphany that overtook her. Staring down at a photo of him made her realize how much she loved him.

But more so, the guilt of her feelings was gone. She loved him and there were no strings attached that feeling. Caroline sat there alone, half of bottle of wine gone and she lost herself in a mixture of tears and laughter. She knew then that she would one day choose him in the same way he chose her.

She just needed to see herself in the same way he saw her.

A year later she packed up that little studio apartment and left New York, heading North.

**the last great American dynasty**

_Who knows, if I never showed up, what could’ve been. There goes the loudest woman this town has ever seen. I had a marvelous time ruining everything._

Caroline is unsure how she ended up in Rhode Island. She just drove and drove until she found a little town located along the seashore. Caroline fell in love. The people were friendly, if not a little snobbish and patronizing. In truth, Caroline found that she fit right in. This was the first time she found herself in a small town since fleeing Mystic Falls.

Caroline did not realize she had missed it.

Then there was an old house that sat on the beach. It was Victorian and had an amazing view. It was empty and had been for years. The story behind it was enchanting and heartwarming. Set in the early 1900s a loud and obnoxious woman fell in love with a wealthy man. He died and the woman remained, becoming the bane of the town’s existence; at least until she moved away, much to the town’s relief. There was something about that old house and when she found a photo of the woman in the historical society’s volumes, Caroline understood why.

An old worn photo of Rebekah sitting beside a handsome looking gentleman was found deep in the town’s achieves. Another failed love story of Rebekah that made Caroline both want to laugh and cry. She took it as a sign that she was meant to have that house. That she was meant to stay in Rhode Island.

The process was stubborn at first; the third party of a third party of the Mikaelsons refused to sell. Back channels and middlemen fighting over whether or not the home was for sale. Caroline didn’t want to reveal that it was her buying but when the attorney flat out refused to sell.

She gave her name and after a month of radio silence, the deed was hers.

Two years, several contractors and purchasing a coffee shop later, Caroline finally felt as though she had a purpose.

**the 1**

_but we were something, don’t you think so? Roaring twenties, tossing pennies in the pool. And if my wishes came true. It would’ve been you. In my defense, I have none, for never leaving well enough alone. But it would’ve been fun, if you would’ve been the one._

It was August again.

Caroline fell into a routine. She opened her shop. Lived in her house. Had friends. She built a life for herself. She truly got to know who she was and what she wanted. She listened to the waves crash against the coast and when she closed her eyes, so could pretend that he was there, holding her hand as she walked down the beach.

Caroline was happy.

And it almost was enough.

Stefan called. The only person she still talked to from her old life. He was still traveling around; no luck discovering the man he could be without Elena. He passed through New Orleans. Matt had moved with Rebekah, turned for her. That surprised Caroline more than anything.

He had a drink with Klaus. He was having a fling with a bartender. Nothing serious, Stefan promised. Apparently, she looked like Caroline; a fact that she was unsure if she should be jealous or flattered.

Caroline imagined Klaus over the years. Where he was and what he was doing. Did he still paint? Did he still paint her? Had he fallen in love with someone else? Did he still love her? A million little questions and yet Caroline had no answers because seeking out the person who could answer them, terrified her.

She was no longer the Caroline he once loved.

Would he love this new version of her?

Or would he miss the damaged broken on who left him behind?

She asked Stefan, causally, if she could have Klaus’s address. She was fooling no one and they both knew it. She could imagine Stefan’s amused smile at her request. He gives it with no questions. Caroline grabbed that old journal off the top shelve in her living room; blowing the dust off it. She flips through the pages; reading each letter she wrote to Klaus. She grabs and pen and adds one final entry before placing it in a package.

Caroline sticks the journal in the mailbox, turns the red flag on the side to stand and waited.

**peace**

_Our coming-of-age has come and gone. Suddenly this summer, it’s clear. I never had the courage of my convictions, as long as danger is near. And it’s just around the corner, darlin’ ‘cause it lives in me. No, I could never give you peace._

One week, two days, six hours, twenty-five minutes and ten seconds found Klaus standing at her front door. He looked hassled. His curly hair was longer than she remembered and looked as though his fingers ran through them constantly. His eyes were bluer too, but perhaps it was the bags under his eyes that made it look so. His clothes were rumpled and dirty.

Caroline had never seen him look more beautiful.

He sat his bag down with a loud thump. It was heavy. Their eyes locked and she knew the burning question that was behind them. Did she mean it? Every word of her journal? Was it real?

Caroline held out her hand and Klaus linked their finger’s together. She pulled him inside and up the stairs. He thought she was taking him to her bedroom. She didn’t. Down the hall, third door on the right that just faced over the crashing waves was an empty room with nothing but an easel inside.

Klaus kissed her then and that old house on the beach finally felt like home.

They stayed for a while. A decade. Maybe two. But Klaus had promises to keep. When they had eternity together, there was no rush. They left the old home behind in exchange for Paris…and then Rome…and then Tokyo.

Standing in the middle of the Himalayans, Klaus’s arms wrapped around her waist, Caroline felt something she never thought she would have.

Peace.

**invisible string**

_time, curious time. Were there clues I didn’t see? And isn’t it just so pretty to think, all along there was some invisible string, tying you to me?_

A hundred years come and go. A century of linked hands, travel, love and bliss. For a time, the past was forgotten. The painful memories tossed aside for the thousand more they left in their wake. They travel the world a hundred times over; never staying still for too long. A year here or a year there.

The house in Rhode Island became a sanctuary. A home away from home. Klaus’s art hung on the walls while Caroline’s laughter could be heard in the breeze. They came back from time to time. New memories to be made. New pleasures to behold.

She saw Tyler once, three decades ago. He was still angry. They were in the right place at the right time. He wouldn’t even look at her but by the tensing of his shoulders, he knew she was there.

Caroline thought it would hurt.

It didn’t.

Caroline learned Elena had died. Damon broke her down and tossed her aside; making her a shell of the woman she once was. Stefan told Caroline that she stood on the same bridge she should have died on and took off her daylight ring.

Maybe it was the century apart or something else, but Caroline only wondered that maybe in death, Elena finally found peace.

It wasn’t the life she intended. Shot down was the lifelong plan she had always envisioned. Instead she found so much more. She loved, not only in the man who always chose her, but she found a way to love herself.

And that was something she knew wasn’t just folklore.


End file.
